Netanyahu orders fresh Gaza strikes despite ceasefire deal
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to launch “intense strikes” across the Gaza Strip, despite the ongoing ceasefire, his office said Tuesday.
The directive followed security consultations in which Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the truce agreement. “Following assessments with defense chiefs, the prime minister instructed the IDF to immediately carry out powerful attacks on Gaza,” the statement said.
Israeli media reported that air raids targeted Rafah in southern Gaza shortly after the announcement, amid claims that Israeli soldiers came under fire in the area earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defense agency said that two people were killed and four were injured in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City.
"Two civilians were killed and four others, including a child and an infant, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home belonging to the Al-Banna family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency said.
Hamas condemned the renewed strikes, accusing Israel of breaching the ceasefire and suspending the planned handover of an Israeli captive’s body. The group warned that Israeli escalation would “delay recovery operations for Israeli and Palestinian bodies trapped under rubble.”
Hamas also rejected accusations that its fighters attacked Israeli troops in Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to abide by the U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
"Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement," the group said in a statement.
According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Netanyahu also discussed with U.S. officials a plan to expand the so-called “Yellow Zone” — a buffer area Israel continues to occupy inside Gaza — despite the truce.
U.S. outlet Axios cited an American official saying Washington had urged Israel to avoid “radical steps” that could collapse the ceasefire, noting Hamas’s delay in returning Israeli bodies “did not constitute a serious violation.”
